Three amazing mysteries spark the imagination concerning the wonders of the ancient world:
(1) The centennial ages recorded of early man
(2) Legends and fossils of giants
(3) Strange descriptions of creatures

Over five years were spent in research and discovery before planning the novel, The Ninth Generation, which led to further study, questions and speculation as to what it might have been like living in such a mysterious and dark time of history.

Found in the fourth and fifth chapters of Genesis are the best documented records of how long the early patriarchs lived, averaging above nine-hundred years before the birth of Noah. His father, Lameck, was still youthful at 56 when his great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather, Adam, died at 930 years-of-age. What unique and fascinating family reunions must have occurred with seven grandfathers all alive together with their multitudinous offspring. Adam's immediate family alone numbered fifty-four children, based on ancient records. What wisdom and experiences must have been shared over a near millennium.

Besides the Hebrew historical records, the fossil remains also testify to a lush semi-tropical environment and the presence of giants, both among the animal and plant world. Two-legged giants are an interesting discussion, but dinosaurs, as they now are called, were earlier referred to as dragons and are widely described in ancient records of many nations - even in cave drawings. There is no shortage of bones and literature describing these creatures. Even soft, squeezable blood vessels have been discovered in an unearthed T-Rex, challenging the conventional age-dating methods.

Among the plants, horsetail reeds that today grow five feet high in the past reached heights of fifty feet. Dragonflies once had wingspans of almost three feet - their fossil impressions are in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. And cockroaches grew up to a foot long - What a messy stomp.

Evidence exists that the entire earthly climate was far more pleasurable in the ancient past. Fossils of palm fronds have been found on northern Vancouver Island in Canada. Within the arctic circle, fossilized fruit trees - with the fruit - have been uncovered in the Spitzbergen Islands. And remains of redwood forests have been found buried beneath masssive ice deposits at the South Polar region.

All of this may be of interest and perhaps already known by many, but another much different type of discovery caused this author reason to suspect that the ancients may have had to make their homes high within the trees for their own safety. Herein begins the tension for the novel - historical fiction, yet potential reality.

While reading a parallel version of Genesis from The Torah - a Jewish translation in English - my eyes were opened to verse four of chapter six: "It was then, and later too, that the Nephilim (giants) appeared on earth - when the divine beings cohabited with the daughters of men, who bore them offspring. They were the heroes of old..."

Further research in ancient writings, including the Book of Enoch, revealed the specter of canabilism within this race of giants - a growing threat to a civilization already besieged by other forms of evil. More than once, the possibility arose that this antediluvian world may have provided the foundation for many of the later mythologies - the dawn of legends.

One especially interesting example is found in a Penguin Classic, Pausanias Guide to Greece. Pausanius was a doctor from Asia Minor who lived in the second century A.D., and spent years exploring and documenting details of the Greek cities. At one point (page 350) he describes a creature that had been preserved by pickling among the wonders of Rome: "Certainly a sight; the hair on their heads...its froggy color...sleek...bodies bristling with very fine scales...gills behind the ears and a human nose, but a very big mouth and the teeth of a wild beast...eyes were greenish-grey...hands and fingers and fingernails crusted like sea-shells. From the breast and belly down they have a dolphin's tail instead of feet."

Were these things the result of genetic manipulation - a deliberate sabatoge of the created order by the "divine beings", along with the Nephilim giants? For the interested reader who is willing to walk the thin line between fantasy and reality, herein is an invitation to step back into Genesis and an epic time-frame of history. Walk among the behemoths and face Leviathan in a preflood world of unspoiled beauty. Wake up in a tree home to the sound of a ram's horn - the signal of another daughter missing from the valley. There's enough adrenalin packed in this thriller adventure to launch any adventure lover into a world of wonder.

The Ninth Generation: Conquering the Giants / ISBN 978-1-60477-656-0

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